Orange County legislators override Diana's Valley View veto

Nursing home to stay open all of 2014

GOSHEN — In a resounding affirmation of their decision to pay for the county nursing home for all of 2014, Orange County legislators voted 19-0 Thursday to override County Executive Ed Diana's veto of changes they made to his four-month budget for the facility.

GOSHEN — In a resounding affirmation of their decision to pay for the county nursing home for all of 2014, Orange County legislators voted 19-0 Thursday to override County Executive Ed Diana's veto of changes they made to his four-month budget for the facility.

The decision solidifies an amended budget that intends to subsidize the 360-bed Valley View Center for Nursing Care and Rehabilitation for a full year with the same $13 million in county taxes Diana budgeted to last only until May 1.

Diana, who has been pushing to privatize Valley View since 2011, had vetoed lawmakers' changes on Nov. 29, challenging some of their financial assumptions and repeating his position that the county can no longer afford the home. It was Diana's third and final attempt to corner legislators into selling the home by providing only partial funding in his annual budget proposals. Diana is due to leave office at the end of this month.

Lawmakers have now changed his budget in all three years and twice overridden his veto of their changes.

Before voting, Republicans and Democrats alike cheered the recent financial improvements at Valley View under a new administrator and the validation they had gotten from accountants to support their projections for 2014.

"That change in management at Valley View has been extremely fair to taxpayers," said Dan Castricone, R-Tuxedo, adding that he hopes "employees will come to the table next year" to help lower costs.

Dennis Simmons, R-Port Jervis, also alluded to the prospect of union concessions, saying he was "calling on the union to make good" on pledges union leaders made in 2012 that didn't materialize in contract negotiations with the Diana administration earlier this year.

With the outcome of the vote uncertain beforehand, Democrat Roxanne Donnery — who has helped lead resistance to Diana's privatization push — issued a pre-emptive rebuke to any Republicans ready to abandon the budget changes, which passed, 15-0, last month.

"If anyone turns in a different direction from their votes of just a few weeks ago, they should be ashamed of themselves," she said.

Mike Anagnostakis, a Republican who has repeatedly challenged Diana's budget claims and fought to keep Valley View in county hands, listed a series of predictions about financial calamities and layoffs that he said had proved untrue, arguing the pall should now be lifted from the home for good.

"I hope we can stop scapegoating Valley View, and put an end to this shameful, three-year chapter in Orange County history," he said.